Hi all,
I'm a committed looper. I have owned in the following order: Line 6 Delay (green one), Boss RC20, Digitech Jamman (still own) and now the Boss RC-50.

Boss has solved all of the problems that I encountered with other loopers. I wanted a looper that I could fade the loop with an expression pedal and not affect the guitar's signal. The RC-50 does it. The three phrases are cool. I can have a rhythm part on phrase 1 (e.g. Knockin' On Heaven's Door). On phrase 2, I can have the drum part and on phrase 3 I can have the bass part. You can set the phrases to be slaves to the first one so that you can cut the bass and add it in but it will be in synch with the rhythm phrase. I know that sounds confusing.

I read almost all of the manual before I started monkeying around. I am definitely keeping this unit. Very clean sound, btw.

Digitech Jamman with Digitech extra pedal for changing between loops for sale. Low miles, perfect condition. 1 gig compact flash (that cost me over $60).

Peace!

haven't tried the gibson echoplex out yet?? I settled on that one as "the one". Think also the inteliflex, if I got the spelling right, looks interesting though. I did like the digitech for the flash memory part

I also own the Digitech Jam Man, and haven't been able to sync it very well. I always seem to get some dead air at the end of the loop. I thought it was just me being inexperienced at looping. Also, I heard the RC 50 Sound quality isn't quite as good when you layer a lot of loops. I would be interested in feedback on sound quality and how to make the loops seamless. I would love to use it with my L1, but not sure how to input, or if you add it into the effects loop that I already am using for some reverb and my TU2 Tuning pedal?

Thanks for the feedback.

I traded for a new, in the box, RC50 yesterday.

Having absolutely no experience with looping, it is very intimidating. The instruction manual, which contains a lot of info, will require more than one read through before I turn on the unit.

Earthworm, how are you using the RC50. Do you prerecord and save your phrases and patches or do you overdub and build phrases live? Or both?

Are you using the center cancel record features to play and sing along with others music?

Any tips that might shorten the learning curve would be appreciated.

O

What I did was program a few patches with some of the options turned on and off in various configurations. Then I approached it in a manner that seemed "natural" to me. When I found the patch that allowed the system to operate how I needed it, I made that combination of settings my base level of operations.

I also found the manual an INCREDIBLY better read after having done that.

This is not a "buy it today, gig that night" kind of toy.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BigKyle-at-Bose,

Hi guys..this Looper is awesome!

One question for any fellow users....

In the manual, it says after you have recorded a phrase and then stopped recording it, the rec/play/overdub peadal light goes green (showing the phrase is playing) and the phrase that you just recorded goes green (showing the phrase is playing). When you go to overdub that phrase the phrase pedal orange light is supposed to go on indicating overdubbing in progress.

Here is the problem: My orange light on my phrase pedal is always on after the initial recording of the phrase.

This happens on all three phrase pedals, and in single and multi mode. It is supposed to go on just when overdubbing, but is on all the time. It makes it difficult to keep track if you are actually overdubbing or not. Not a big problem, but....Are all the rc-50's like this?????thx

I prerecord my tracks and have them at my disposal during live shows. Cheating? Yeah, probably, but I don't care. I don't use it for live looping at all--well, maybe a little bit. I use it to solo over phrases.

Hi Earthworm and all fellow loopers,
First, hope everyone had a great break from work and a Happy New Year to all, yeah!....

Back to looping. I use the Boss RC20 along with a Digitech pedal to produce the different sounds from my Patrick Eggle guitar. Some songs and/or instrumentals I choose to build up the layers live but I find this works best on fairly simple songs with a fairly short sequence. Otherwise I think it tends to get a bit boring for the listeners to put up with.
For example, 'Liquidator', which is an early instrumental reggae track. It only has two chords right the way through and I even use this as a demonstration sometimes to show the audience how the process works.I start with an organ sound and play the chords as afterbeats, then I change the sound and add some stucatto, percussivy sounds. I then choose a bass sound and add that. The melody on this particular tune I play with a steel drum type sound. aia then put down the guitar and pick up either my tambourine or cabassa or something and go and listen to it for a while or see if I can get someone up for a dance. Course, this depends a lot on the type of crowd, the venue and the amount of beer consumed. Usually people are amazed how quickly I can build up a 6 layer authentic Jamaican sounding reggae tune right in front of their very ears. I spent quite a lot of time programming sounds into the Digitech pedal to get'oddball' sounds from a guitar ranging from scratchy percussive sounds to steel drum sounds to bass and organ type sounds.
The biggest tip I could pass on to anyone using a looper is to make sure each sound used has it's own qualities. I think what I mean is that ther should be a lot of contrast between the sounds that are used, this will keep it clean and uncluttered. This is especially true when just using one L1 as I do and we cannot rely on panning to seperate the different sounds.
By the way, on longer , more complicated songs, I too have them prepared earlier and I just sing and solo guitar along to it.
All the best to everyone and by the way, I am soon about to order a second B1.
Bye for now, Gordon.

Hi Folks,

I have the Digitec Looper, which I really enjoy. Just got an L1. I have the same question as Kings Court (see above) ... What input do folks use on the L1 for their looper? Also, where in the overall signal chain do they place it( I also use a D-Tar Mama Bear), and any comments on gain staging. Am experimenting now, but would appreciate any experiences others have to share. Thanks.

Hi there Playit,

I'm sure there is no 'correct' way to link the looper ,guitar and L1. What works well for me is my guitar into Digigtech pedal into Boss Looper then straight into channel 2 on the Bose.

When linking things in-line like this a little care in relative volumes or gain staging is called for but after a bit of experimentation it works really well.

On the subject of 'seamless' joins on the loops. I'm pretty sure the Digigtech Jam Man as some kind of quantize function. On my Boss RC20 I just press the 'Auto Start' button and that seems to do the trick. I'll bet the Digitech has something similar.

When it comes to layering and how many layers before degradation. The maximum layers I use is 8 and I don't notice any distortion or fade at all. As I mentioned in my earlier post - it is very important to use different sounds that have a nice tonal contrast. I think this helps in the overall clarity as the different layers build up.

Earthworm, a question for you if that's ok. What would you say are the main advantages of the Boss RC50 over the RC20. I'm wondering if it might be making the swap to the bigger one. Thanks for any ideas, Gordon.

Greetings, people of the Loop.

Glad to find this discussion, as I'd ventured the topic elsewhere. (Thanks to Drummr for the tip!) I too have a Boss RC-20, and just got the RC-50 (haven't had time to really get into the latter).

I used the RC-20 on some holiday gigs with my trio. On one tune I had a pre-recorded rhythm guitar track, on others I'd use it to repeat an accompaniment so I could take lead one time through.

On the one gig with my PAS, though, I ran into some issues, probably to do with gain staging. I've got 3 guitars going through a multiselector to a Yamaha AG STomp, and thence into channel 2. In general, that works great. I inserted the RC-20 between multiselector and AG stomp, thinking, well, I'll make the in/out nice n strong on the RC 20, back off a bit on the Stomp, and see how that works with Ch 2. I tried it out at home and thought I had it dialed pretty well.

At the gig, however, there was weirdness, especially when I played my 12-string, which has a Rare Earth blender. Odd volume fluctuations and feedback, which I caught on the Stomp (love that feedback zapper!) but then the sound was less rich.

Since I'd already done my loopy stuff, I removed the RC 20 for the second set.

I'd be interested in others' thoughts and experiences with this. I wondered if I should plug differently, i.e., maybe into ch 3 or 4.

Here's a fun RC-50 looping pathway.

L1: mic 1- Audix OM5 for vocals. mic 2- RC-50, into which I have a microphone for percussion and a bass guitar in the instrument input.

Now I can loop percussion, play bass, and sing or any combination of those. If I want to loop a vocal, I sing into the percussion mic. Now when I'm backing an acoustic duo, we get to sound like a much bigger group.

I was looking at the RC-50, and due to price, I am trying out the Digitech JamMan for a few more weeks. Got a 'blem' model for about $229 @ Musicians Friend.

Does the RC-50 with its many pedals make it much easier to go between loops? E.g., get rid of a vocal harmony, change a solo/lead, stop all loops and sing a capella?

I am totally new to this; read one review said to definitely get bigger compact flash card and the Digitech FS3X footswitch.

Thanks...
Mark
The Yooper Looper

Also... please comment on the the JamMan and use of the extra foot switch/pedal (is it really necessary/a huge help?)...

Thanks,

Mark

Mark,

Did you play outside on the mall near Moose Jackson and the library last summer? I think that I talked to you there. Also, did you have some 801 speakers then??

I also have the Digitech Jam man. I have a 1 gig card for it and the foot switch, but it doesn't do one very important thing on the foot switch, and that is save the loop.

If you have the loops pre-saved on the Jam man, and want to switch between the loops, it works great, but for a loop on the fly, and switch scenario, you will lose the original loop when you go to the next one. Say loop one is chorus, loop 2 is verse and loop 3 is bridge.

Once you set them up and save them all, it works great, but you can;t save them with out bending over to push the save button, or having bare feet and very dexterous toes.

I think that the RC50 solves that by having more pedals, and at least 3 available loops that you can use at one time. You also don't seem to have to have the loops be the same length. If you have a rhythm that stays constant throughout the song, you can do one measure of it on one loop, and then layer longer loops on the other tracks.

The disadvantage, is non expandable storage.

Hope that helps.

I will be in the UP over the 4th of July, and may see you then.

quote:

Does the RC-50 with its many pedals make it much easier to go between loops? E.g., get rid of a vocal harmony, change a solo/lead, stop all loops and sing a capella?

I am totally new to this; read one review said to definitely get bigger compact flash card and the Digitech FS3X footswitch.

Thanks...
Mark
The Yooper Looper

i have both the rc50 and the jamman inc the footswitch.

the rc50 is pretty much just like 3 jammans linked together and they are also in stereo.

the advantage of the jamman is that if you take the time to prerecord then you can have up to 99 patches that you can move through and sync together using the optional footswitch. The rc50 can only move seamlessly thro the 3 phrases in each patch....since it pauses between patches. But for on the fly creativity the rc50 is way ahead of the jamman because it has three times as much to experiment with.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zazz,

I just bought the RC-50 Loop Station a couple of months ago. I primarily want to use it as an "on the fly" looper for acoustic guitar. I am having trouble with the loop coming in after pressing the record button the 2nd time. There seems to be a delay in the instant playback. My pressing on the button is not the issue because the next time the loop comes around it is dead on. I have the auro record turned on set to a very mild trigger setting. I have the metronome volume set to off (therefor bypassing the auto quantizing feature.)
I use to own the Gibson Echoplex. I would still have the Echoplex but it could not store loops. I had no problem with this delay in the 1st loop repeating. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
TnMike

TnMike,
There is new firmware that allows you to fix that issue. Go to the Roland website and you'll learn more.

Hello I´m totaly new on this forum

i´m thinking of bying either a jamaman or a RC 50 station.

I have i´m used tu work with an old delaypedal
zoom delay 508

when I use this you can save the time and speed of the the loop before. Example, I do a click that goes in 60 bpm and I set the total lengt of the loop is 4 seconds.
so you dont have tho be so accurate with your fot. for stoping or starting the loops

is this possible on any of these loopstations

regards/ fredrik